


Dathomir Unification

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Kenobi-and-Skywalker appearance, and other mentioned in minor roles, with Tano of course
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 10:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13385904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: When Ky Narec appears as a Force Ghost to his padawan, Asajj Ventress has to re-evaluate her life and plans.





	Dathomir Unification

Asajj had been troubled for days. Ever since the last punishment — she ached in every muscle still, feeling phantom electricity — her mind had failed to find rest. 

Dooku had promised her power, more skills, teaching in ways that would let her never, ever be a slave to anyone again. And yet he continually belittled her, failing to give any compensation for the increasing difficulty of the tasks, while withholding techniques that might make her a stronger fighter.

She was no more free now than she had been as a child, and the bitter weight of that drove her to such seething rage as to break her ability to plan, to concentrate on making Dooku merely a step in her path.

With a growl of frustration, she moved to strip fully and put herself through a shower, lingering in the warmth, letting the water soothe her pain. Astringent soap attacked every inch of bare skin, carrying away the oils and sweat of her earlier exercises. She smoothed the depilatory cream over her scalp, let it take away the hair that threatened to hide her marks of vengeance, then rinsed herself off once more.

Out of the water, she tied a towel around her waist, and used another to roughly scour her upper body dry. Still wearing the one, she moved back into her room and took up a meditative stance, closing her eyes to reach for the Force in the ways she had been taught as a child on Rattatak.

Her mind played out the memory of that place and time, very specifically, so that she could see and smell and hear all the things that had meant home and safety to her.

 _I need you to listen to me, heart's child,_ Ky Narec said as the crafted memory helped settle her mind. _My dear little one, you cannot stay here._

No. That… Ky, her beloved master had never said that to her. They had chosen to make their stand, to try and build a safer, better place together, and he'd been murdered for it.

_Ahh yes, I am dead, Asajj. But you are deep in the Force, where the dead reside, remember? Your birthright, mastery over death and life alike. I will never be lost in the Force, for you and I are bound._

Her mind stumbled, and she was thrown completely out of meditation, her eyes flying open. She had never tried to contact Ky's spirit, had felt that doing so was the final step in admitting she'd failed to protect him. Yet—

— there he was, fluttering just at the edge of her awareness, now that she had touched him once.

"Master?"

Every single deed she had done since his death came to her in sharp clarity, as she knew in full honesty he would never have approved of her path. She dropped her chin, ashamed, as only this man had ever seen her be.

"My padawan," his voice carried to her ears so faintly, with nothing like censure or disapproval. "Let me help you find a better place, my child. Dooku is no friend, nor will he let you live as his plans come to fruition," Ky told her.

The words spoke of truth, and she could feel this was her Ky Narec, not some temptation.

"I am listening, my master."

* * *

Lotho Minor had almost nothing that Asajj Ventress could ever want. However, her spectral guide had insisted an asset was there, one that held secrets of the Sith. What Ky had failed to convey, however, was how … unbalanced the asset was.

One exhaustingly long combat later, in which she had been careful to disable, not kill, Asajj was left staring at a male of her own people, one marked in glorious tattoos and missing his original legs.

"I can give you better mobility, a life that has purpose again, and your dignity," she told him as she strained to keep him pinned with the Force. He would be, she realized, quite likely her better in straight combat, once he had his mind under his control and a proper cybernetic replacement for his legs.

"All I want is Kenobi!" the Zabrak male hissed at her.

She smiled, a dangerous look. "How interesting, as he's been something of a hobby of mine as well." She very suddenly let go of the Force hold, sidestepping when it sent him surging toward her. "However much you think your revenge lies in fighting that darling of a Jedi, I believe you'd be better suited to prepare to face the Sith that trained you."

Her words brought him up short, and she could see tension cord through his entire body.

"None can defeat him."

"Perhaps… alone? But I do not intend for us to be alone, or even to directly face him." Asajj gave a wicked smile. "I want revenge on my Sith master. Taking both of them down, manipulating the Jedi in the process, will leave you and I to shape what we wish of our own people."

The Zabrak, of whom Ky had been able to tell her just enough to put against pieces of conversation between the hidden Sith and Dooku to guess his place in events, considered through the haze of madness.

"And Kenobi?"

Asajj considered. "Perhaps, in time, you and I both will have use of that one."

He shifted his posture, a glint of canny intelligence sparking in his eyes. "I do not trust you. But I wish this."

"Trust is not something we need at this stage, warrior. We have our thirst for vengeance to bind us.

* * *

Maul, it proved, was more skeptical of the guidance of a Force Spirit, especially one that had been a Jedi… until Ky warned them to avoid the witch known as Talzin.

"Agreed," he grudgingly said. "Let us begin among the Nightbrothers, and recruit those we need among them."

Asajj's eyes narrowed. "I will not see the order of things flipped," she growled, old memories of a collar and manacles rising in her soul.

"A more equitable one, perhaps," Maul said smoothly, his eyes glinting at her. "I feel your fear, witch, and taste the past closing in on you. Do you fear being treated as you know the, what is that word I have heard, _malelings_ are treated?

"Do you expect me to do your bidding, or am I the sole exception in the world where you hold the leashes?"

Sometimes, the weeks of pulling Maul back to sanity, of giving him education outside the blind rhetoric of hatred Sidious had instilled in him, was something Asajj regretted.

Yet, there was a piece of her that remembered Ky's teachings more than it embraced the way of the Nightsisters.

"We recruit there, and learn their opinions of the women they have interacted with," Asajj agreed, adding more than Maul might have considered. "To know who we might find useful in remaking Dathomir as ours."

Maul had to smile, as he notched this witch up a bit for her ability to adapt.

* * *

The revolution against the Nightsisters leading Asajj's clan went smoother than Asajj had expected… because of the Nightbrothers. They knew things, knew ways in and out, knew who to subdue first. Now, as she faced Talzin, backed by Maul and a Nightbrother known as Savage who claimed Maul as kin, she could feel victory in her grasp.

Then Maul surged forward, suddenly, his motion barely registering until it was done, and it was his lightsaber piercing the elder witch before she could complete the dangerous motion of her hands. Asajj bared her teeth at her partner, but he matched her with his own grimace.

"That was for my own suffering, because of her actions," he snarled. "I make no claim over the witches, only the men, per our deal."

Asajj would likely find her leadership challenged, going forward, because she had not bested Talzin in combat, but she had made the deal… and even understood Maul's thirst for the killing blow in that.

"Agreed. A few days to consolidate our hold here, then we begin planning the next steps," she said coolly.

Maul inclined his head, then walked away with his brother.

* * *

"He's coming."

They hadn't had the time to plan for an attack off world when Ky's words brought Asajj out of a light sleep. She blinked, noted that her master was already fading, and knew he had given too much energy to keeping an eye on the Sith. 

"Go rest, Master. We will deal with the Sith apprentice… and make certain his master understands the folly of attacking us."

Ky Narec faded away, leaving her to pull her cloak on and steal way to the village the men lived in. She would warn Maul, then prepare the women… before she went and tried to find the rancor nest to make a deal. Given the droids at Dooku's disposal, she wanted to have an edge in the coming fight. Convincing the rancor nest to help might just do that, and leave the Nightsisters wary of contesting her leadership.

When she slipped into the home of the brothers that had taken Maul in, she paused in the main room and let the warrior come to her, knowing he'd sensed her. They might not have exceptional trust, but for now, they had a working relationship laced through by the Force they shared.

"My master says Dooku is coming. It is doubtful Grievous will be with him; most likely he is coming to deal with me directly as a loose end."

"We should plan for the possibility of both, though," Maul pointed out, and she nodded. "I will ready the men; have the witches ready."

She snarled at him for the tone. "They will be!"

* * *

Somewhere in the chaos of the Separatist siege and attack on Dathomir, the Republic took notice.

Of course it had been Kenobi.

Of course that was still the hot-button issue for Maul.

Dooku might even have gotten away, except — and this galled Ventress to no end, given her antipathy for the man — Skywalker and his pet were on Kenobi's heels, bringing in their units behind the initial strike by commandos and Kenobi assigned to the 212th.

Asajj left Maul and Kenobi to their own devices then, and focused fully on Dooku. She did not want the lying, manipulative piece of filth to escape her, not now that she knew her own master's history with the man. Dooku had purposefully fostered her hatred of certain Jedi in particular as a way of paying back imagined slights of the past.

"Ventress!" Skywalker hissed.

"Focus on the real threat, you idiot of a gundark!" she snapped back, pressing into the fight that none of them were actually skilled enough for. They needed Kenobi, needed Maul, though the pet was putting in a viciously adequate harrying technique that was keeping Dooku from getting the upper hand against the pair of more experienced fighters.

It was invaluable aid, played up to both the small size and lack of expertise of the fighter, and was just what they needed, as Asajj and Anakin kept the pressure on Dooku, preventing his escape.

In the back of her mind, Asajj put a couple of those tricks aside. In some other world, she might have enjoyed honing the young padawan—

— and her thoughts were disrupted as a burst of lightning got past her guard and arced through her body, leaving her in agony and defenseless for the moment.

She tried to wrestle her dominant arm around, to at least get her lightsaber in place against the inevitable attack… and that attack was intercepted on Maul's blade. She could, around the fuzz in her brain, see as Kenobi joined the fight, letting Tano fall back.

Skywalker-and-Kenobi moved into their uncanny rhythm on one side, while Maul engaged with powerful, pushing blows and subtle ripostes from the other. Asajj continued to force her body to adapt, to heal from damage it had felt too many times from this man at the center of the grueling fight. Maul's brother, the big one, was tied down leading the combined forces of the clan, so she had to get in there, to protect the few holes Maul had in his style.

When had protecting him become the point? He was merely a stepping stone to freedom from her past!

And yet, as she pushed in to partner him, he adapted to her presence, as he had adapted to the other pair. In freeing Dathomir, in taking on the choice to make their people stronger, they had come to a working synergy of style that showed itself in mere moments.

Between the two pairs — vaguely, Asajj realized she could hear Tano calling orders to the soldiers, directing them to work with the Dathomiri — Dooku was trapped and knew it. The killing blow landed from two points, with Skywalker's lightsaber going through the man's chest on a lunge Kenobi guarded, and Asajj's own strike that went through the neck in an almost textbook Makashi piercing maneuver.

As the Sith fell, the two pairs laid eyes on one another, and Maul's hand shifted on the hilt of his 'saber.

"We want their ships, especially Dooku's," Kenobi said. "To use against whomever the hidden master is. The one that replaced you in mere weeks, warrior."

Skywalker was tense, but after a moment, he was the one to buttress his master's statement. "We're not here to fight any of you; we came to deal with Dooku. And his droids are still fighting your people," he pointed out.

"This is not at an end, but today is not the day," Maul agreed, turning away from his locked stare at Kenobi. "Do try and keep your dear Chancellor from killing you, Kenobi, when you unmask him," he added casually.

Asajj didn't even try to hide the sneer of amusement when that set Skywalker and Kenobi at odds, before she hurried to aid her Sisters in the fight to keep their world free.

* * *

"Talzin and Dooku dead," Asajj mused.

"Kenobi is still out there," Maul said even as he made certain the cold pack remained on Feral's arm where the boy had been hit by a droid's arm, bruising it.

"Yes, but that's merely a minor nuisance at this time," Asajj pointed out. "You put aside your differences earlier."

"I wish to know which of us is the better fighter," Maul told her. "Before he gets himself killed by some other recklessness that pup leads him into."

Asajj snorted at that. "I just think he'd be an interesting night's distraction."

Maul rolled his eyes, but conceded the point, given that Night Sisters only chose the strongest for breeding. Kenobi was steeped in the Force. "I don't even wish to kill him so much, not now," he mused, settling Feral at his side a little more carefully. The youngest of the trio of brothers was resigning himself to being the one coddled as time went by, even if he was a good fighter in his own rights.

"Why not?" Asajj asked, looking up as Savage came into the dwelling. Maul's eyes went to the eldest brother, and she could see his features soften some.

"Like you, witch, I see the worth in strengthening ourselves here, as the Sith and Jedi spend themselves on their pointless dejarik game."

"Hmm, good."

Later they could make other plans. Later, they would chase the Kenobi issue further. For now… they had a world to unify and look after, free of the immediate Sith shadow. Asajj looked forward to Ky manifesting again, to see if her master was pleased with her choices.

Somehow, she thought he would be.


End file.
